Impervious Rule
by Innately Feminine
Summary: O'Hara considers herself reasonable enough, One rule she stood by was to never get deeply involved with a patient, this was her impervious rule. O'Hara/OC  Monica
1. The Rule

Doctor O'Hara considered herself reasonable enough. She stayed on the very thin line between following and breaking the rules. She was one to glide through because she did her job very, very well. It never was a problem. One rule she stood by was to never get deeply involved with a patient. And she means a patient who could pop up at any time with any doctor. Yes, alright, she had had the occasional romp or two with a man or woman here or there, but never a relationship. A relationship was, indeed just not what she could handle at this point with anyone, much less a patient who may see her every other week. She was an ER doctor; schedules were hectic, she was always needed, and relationships make things very complicated very quickly. She wasn't ready to be blindsided by anyone with their romanticism. She wasn't ready, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't happen.

"Why am I alive today? I should be certifiably dead in my bed with no movement. None." O'Hara had drunk the night before. She was in an especially piteous mood being that she was alone with her alcohol. Jackie was busy with the children that night and she would run to hell, back, and down again before she asked Zoey. So, alone she was and today she was paying for her wallowing in the form of a very large Percocet entitled headache.

"Here, I grabbed the Percocet you asked for," Jackie said laying out a pill and a little cup of water for her friend.

"Thank you." O'Hara drew out her vowels through her grog then immediately downed the pills. The moment she plopped her head down on the counter right in front of Jackie's normal chair, hell broke loose in the ER.

"HEAD WOUND, BLUNT FORCE TO THE TEMPLE WITH SHALLOW PULSE."

O'Hara groaned, but snapped right into action. This was going to be a very long day.

The day was drawing to a close. O'Hara was getting pretty antsy. There was an hour left and she was hoping that injuries would just pause for 60 minutes or be directed to another hospital for this little while she had left. Her headache was still at the back of her head just looming. The only thing, she knew, that would quell this was sleep. She. Needed. Sleep.

The clock was ticking slowly but surely. Half an hour and she would be out. Her bag was ready, her keys at the ready, and she would be out that door in point five seconds the moment the clock hit. There were only very small cases coming in, most of which she felt comfortable pawning off on Cooper who was just so happy to take care of it all. He was still on a tip about showing his worth. His celebrity was dying down now; a picture on a bus only lasts so long. Fifteen minutes.

"Jacks, I'm about to get out of here. Anything you need before I go? And I ask this only as a courtesy because I won't be doing anything."

"No, it's fine. Everything's under control just have your pager at the ready. And get some sleep without the help of Merlot," Jackie said with a chuckle and a dig.

"I promise nothing!" O'Hara, as much as she wouldn't like to admit it was a bit of a wine-o and there would probably be a bottle (or two) mixed into the equation if a fit of feelings like last night came up again. With ten minutes left O'Hara was primed and ready. She thought to herself, _it's just ten minutes, I can go. Sleep at last. _Of course, this thought would trigger an onslaught.

"FEMALE, 26, TWO FRACTURES IN HER LEFT LEG, BROKEN RIB, BRUISES AND CUTS TO FACE."

She really wanted to ignore this. She really really wanted to ignore this. …_FUCK. _She thought, threw her bags down and went to work.

"What happened?" She said with urgency to the EMT.

"Hit and ran over by a car. Driver called 911 but didn't stay at the scene."

"Bastard. Jackie! I'm gonna need morphine and lots of it. What's her name?"

"Monica, we think. Couldn't get much out of her."

"Alright, Monica? Do you know where you are? You're at All Saints Hospital."

The girl let out a grunt, which caused her to move, which incited tears and more grunts and cries from the pain of the broken rib.

"JACKIE! WHERE'S THAT MORPHINE?"

O'Hara looked at the clock, it was 3 hours later. After taking care of a broken rib, some internal bleeding, a couple of hefty fractures to a (she couldn't help but notice) notably nice leg, and a couple of stitches she was done. Now, she realized she was going to have to wait a bit for the girl to wake up and tell her all that had gone on in her battered little frame.

"You know, you can go home, I'll take care of the rest of this." Jackie could see the weariness on O'Hara.

"No, no, I'll do this one. Might as well. But I will take a nap in the lounge. Come wake me up when she does, yes?"

"Okay…you sure?"

"Positive."

"Hey, she woke up. Ellie? Ellie!"

"What? What?"

"Your patient; She's awake."

With a scoff, O'Hara reluctantly got up off of the cot, arranged herself, took a glance in the mirror, and then headed to the woman.

Her patient was very pretty. She could tell as she was stitching things up on her face the woman had perfect skin and beautiful eyes, even though she only caught small glimpses being that she was in and out of consciousness. Her eyes would flutter open; maybe look around but then, right back out. Now that she was awake, she'd probably get to see them in their entirety which made her a little uncharacteristically giddy. O'Hara pulled her mind back down from the eyes as she neared the recovery room, and walked in, with chart in hand.

"Hello, I'm Doctor O'Hara. How're you feeling?"

Saying all this while flipping through the chart, when she finally looked up to take in the response, she realized that the women's eyes, were indeed very beautiful.

And with this, O'Hara knew she might just have to break her most impervious rule.


	2. Those Eyes

"I've been better. But, hell, I've been worse so we'll go with just fine," said the woman with the faintest smirk. It all came out in a bit of groan though the pain meds were setting in, she was a tad groggy from the anesthesia.

"I'm sure the morphine doesn't hurt."

"Not at all."

"Before we give you your full anatomical rundown would you fill us in on at least your name? Your ID was ruined and you were alone."

"Monica Coultas. Nice to meet you."

Monica. O'Hara liked the way it bounced around her head. It fit the woman. This long, golden skinned, lithe bodied woman. She had this beautiful face, even behind the stitches and bruises, full lips, almond eyes with these very translucent brown eyes. Her hair was rather short, a bit of a bob, but it was tussled and unkempt from all the commotion. O'Hara remembered having to ruin a very nice red blouse and a pair of Calvin Klein trousers to fix her. She entertained the idea of buying her new ones for a moment but then was brought back to the task at hand.

"Well, Monica, hello. We've been pretty well acquainted over the last few hours so please, just keep it to O'Hara. Any who, would you like to know the extent of your damage?"

"Lay it on me."

Jackie interrupted, "this is a laundry list, and so before she begins this, is there anyone you'd like me to call?"

Monica answered quickly, "My mom. She probably thinks I've gone MIA. I was on my way to Jersey."

"This late at night?"

"Yeah, well. She said it was an emergency."

"Right, write down the number. Here's a pen and paper. Anything I can get you?"

"Water, please." Monica passed off the paper back to Jackie with a groan. There was a faint pain still there all over her body. O'Hara began again.

"Okay, so here's what you've got, a broken rib, two fractures in your left leg and a few cuts and bruises to the face. You had a bit of internal bleeding but we got that all taken care of."

"Aren't you a miracle worker?"

"I am pretty amazing, they tell me."

"And modest."

"Yes, well," O'Hara and Monica both let out a little giggle, but then Monica let out a hiss of pain prompting O'Hara to run to the side of the bed and let it back a little so there wasn't so much strain on the rib.

"Thank you," Monica said with a little pant in her breath, trying to ease the pain.

"Of course," O'Hara said with thick concern in her voice. Monica looked up at her and O'Hara looked right into those eyes and got lost in them for a moment. They were just so beautiful. Monica was the first to break the gaze and start to blush, O'Hara noticed this and smirked, but stayed there at her side.

"I'll be back to check on you in a bit, alright?" Completely disregarding the fact she was going to leave around four or five hours ago. It was now almost one in the morning and she was still here. Better than drinking alone, she figured.

"Quite alright with me." Monica's smile reached her eyes as she looked up at O'Hara. Trying to hide her blushing, O'Hara did a small grin and walked towards the entrance of Monica's room.

"Hurry back." Monica called out. And with that she was out of the room. Once she was at the nurse's station, she took a deep breath while filling out the rest of some charts. Once she was done, like radar she immediately found Jackie, walked up behind her and said, "Chapel. Now."


	3. Not Strong Enough to Bite

Jackie followed suit to the chapel as O'Hara had already hurried off. When she got there she saw that O'Hara was already sitting in an empty pew taking a swig from her every so swanky flask.

"What's got you all shaken up?"

"This Monica girl."

Jackie was ultimately perplexed. "Why? Straight forward injuries, no complications…what's so perplexing about that?" She sat down right next to O'Hara at a friendly distance.

"She's just so… I don't know, something about her makes me very nervous."

"Good nervous or bad nervous?"

"I don't know."

"Or is it I-have-a-school-girl-crush nervous?"

"You insult me Jacks," scoffing at the idea Jackie had just presented to her.

"Look, I have a lot of work to do, much more important than tending to your denial so if you'll excuse me…" Jackie said, standing up to leave the chapel and head back to the nurse's station.

"Jaaaaaaaacks!" O'Hara was reverting to childhood tactics.

"What? What do you want me to say? I'm sorry you're smitten! Take care of it like a big girl! Either act on it or let it go. I've never seen you this shy before in my life."

"It's not my fault, it's hers." O'Hara proceeded to pout.

"C'mon, we've got big kid things to do, you know, like, saving lives."

O'Hara continued to pout and begrudgingly got back up and walked back around to the nurse's station with Jackie. It was pretty calm for now. O'Hara took a glimpse at her watch and realized that now would be the time to leave if any. Now was the battle of the minds, stay or go. Stay and have a nice little view of Monica for a bit or go and risk not seeing her later. She absent-mindedly started to click the pen she still had in her hand from earlier and soon she felt a hovering presence behind her that seemed very tentative to say anything. She immediately decided it was Zoey.

"Yes, Zoey?"

"Oh hi. Um, I just wanted to ask if you could…I mean…it's just… "

Jackie chimed in, "The clicking!"

"Yeah, that. Could you not? I mean that in the nicest way possible."

O'Hara stared at Zoey with a look of disdain until she finally shuffled away muttering something along the lines of "okay bye".

Clicking her pen once more to retract it, she then went back to silently contemplating what she would do. Jackie seemed to read her mind because she came right next to her and laid out a plan for O'Hara to follow.

"Go check on her, say goodbye and I will make sure she does not move until later on when you get back, alright?"

"Jacks, how could I live without you?"

"You couldn't but that's okay."

"We all have our vices."

"Indeed we do."

O'Hara gathered her things that she had dropped on the counter earlier to help Monica, and now was strolling up to see her one last time for the night in recovery. Her heels clicked with every step on the glassy linoleum. The nearer and nearer she got she felt her heart speed up in its pace. She really did not like the level of attachment growing to this woman she'd _just met._ It was taxing on her brain. She hadn't felt this way in a very long time and she vowed she wouldn't, her skin became tougher and tougher with every break, but her heart more fragile. She didn't like this feeling but she wasn't fighting it and every bit of what was happening was baffling her.

She finally reached the door of Monica's room and saw the woman was asleep. This was her very chance to just walk away and possibly never see her again. From this point on she would be dealing with specialists and physical therapist. Jackie wouldn't even be part of the process anymore. It would have been easy. O'Hara battled herself in the doorway for a bit, but her decision was made for her when she was brought out of her head by Monica's voice.

"Well, hello there stranger." She cleared her throat, it was thick with grog.

"Oh, hi. I was just coming to say goodnight, leaving for the day…night. Wanted check up on you."

O'Hara was still leaning against the door frame.

"I won't bite. I'm not strong enough to at the moment."

"What?"

"Seems like you're frightened to come in. I think you know better than I do, I'm not contagious."

"Oh, yes, well, I wasn't going to stay long."

"I wasn't asking you to, but I would like to see your face. Being that my glasses are nowhere to be found, closer is the only way I can do that. So pretty please?"

O'Hara was fighting it, she could have just said she had to leave immediately but no, she couldn't find it in herself to deny the young woman. So she walked to the side of the bed, she felt herself being watched by deep brown eyes. When she finally was standing next to her she very chastely looked down at Monica.

"Ah, that's better. See? Was that so hard?"

"You'd be surprised."

Monica chuckled. "Well, thank you for overcoming it. I just really wanted to see your face again; you make me feel at ease."

"That's probably just the morphine drip kicking up."

"Or I could be paying you a compliment that you're refusing to take."

Now O'Hara chuckled at Monica's quick thinking. "A possibility."

Monica simply smiled up at O'Hara. At one point, which she couldn't remember if she tried, she found her hand brushing hair out Monica's face. Her finger tips grazed her cheek which was so soft to the touch, she noted and lingered for a moment after that. Once O'Hara realized what she was doing, she immediately pulled her hand away and cleared her throat. Monica giggled and smiled up at her again.

"Why are you so scared to flirt? You don't seem like the shy type." Monica said a little mockingly and raised her bed to a sitting position.

"I liked your hand where it was."


End file.
